Quality assurance tests are conducted on equipment used in many industries, including the automotive industry, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) industry, medical industry, environmental industry, and process industry. For example, quality assurance tests may be conducted on equipment to verify the equipment will not fail when exposed to one or more types of load conditions, such as elevated internal pressure, tension loading, compression loading, or bending load. When testing equipment to the edge of performance, it is desirable to have state of the art load control.
A common method used to test equipment includes using a control system to automate a preset load sequence on the equipment. The control system will direct a test assembly to apply loads to the equipment in timed intervals. The control system may further record the loads applied to the equipment and may monitor any changes in the equipment, such as internal pressure, deflection, etc. In addition, during the load sequence, or separate from the load sequence, an operator may be allowed to manually control a test parameter, such as adjusting pressure or tension applied to the equipment. In some instances, the control system may be equipped to terminate the load sequence if any preset condition is exceeded, in order to avoid equipment failure.
However, this method of testing may result in equipment failure in certain circumstances. For example, while altering one test parameter, other control parameters could become unstable, resulting in equipment failure. Alternatively, while testing equipment required to withstand certain loads for a specified duration, if one preset condition is exceeded, the control system may completely terminate the load sequence resulting in a failed test.
What is needed, then, is a system and method for controlling load sequences applied to equipment that addresses the issues discussed above.